Yeah, that’s right, I went and saw a band named “Perfect Pussy” and didn’t even raise an eyelash let alone an eyebrow. With a name like that the band was bound to be terrible beyond belief or amazing. I had faith; lets just put it that way. When me and Patch showed up, there literally was no one there except the band who was just starting to unload their equipment and we were told to come back in 30 minutes and there might be music. So 30 minutes later we returned but the opening band had yet to start. There also was a grand total of 13 people and when the first band finally did go on they played to a very empty and dead Launchpad.

They were called the Vassar Bastards and were decent. They had a good amount of variation in their songs ranging from punk to acoustic slow jams and they had a fair bit of energy. Small talk was not their biggest plus but luckily they kept that to a minimum. Towards the end though, Perfect Pussy’s band members had come out and were watching, waiting to get on stage and so of course I kept a closer eye on their reaction to the band than the actual band itself. At first Perfect Pussy was intrigued at best but slowly they grew bored and that’s about when I started wishing them off stage. I felt bad but I was ready to be wowed by Perfect Pussy because the more I watched and observed them, the more I realized it was going to be a show worth remembering and telling your kids you were at. To end their set, the Vassar Bastards guitarist thought it would be cute to smash his guitar and at that point any pity/ love I had for them had dried up and was quite done with them as they almost ashamedly walked off stage.

So on came Perfect Pussy. Immediately they started busting out their instruments in a very business like fashion except they were not doing it on the stage, they were on the floor and me and Patch had to keep moving back in order to not get in their way. Seeing them on the floor was a very, very good sign for me, showing me the show was going to be even more intimate than it already promised to be from the lack of people. And then, BAM they started and it was like being shot in the face with the blast of noise, energy and all around power that the five people in the band created. It was punk in the rawest sense but with an incredible amount of harsh noise and reverb thrown in. There was such incredible liveliness to the music I was beating on my chest from beginning to end and could not stop because there was no stop. Between each song there was maybe seconds of rest before the band would fly into the next.

Each song was full of quick guitar riffs and quicker drum beats along with a nice addition of keyboard harshness. The lyrics were impossible to understand but it didn’t matter. Before the show had started, the lead singer had jokingly said to the sound man it didn’t really matter how the mic sounded, it was all for show anyways. I didn’t quite realize how true this was until they started but as much effort as the lead singer was putting, I could not hear her to save my life.

That was not a problem though, because not only had Patch warned me of this fact about the band before hand, the incredible vigor the rest of the band possessed and displayed was insane. They jumped and danced and screamed and sweated and basically went wild on stage (or in the crowd to be specific). The guitarist was on his knees and jumping more than half the time, never standing still, the drummer viscously beat his kit, the keyboard player could not stand still and the bass player rocked back and forth as if he couldn’t stop himself.

The lead singer is where I kept my eyes the whole night though. Meredith Graves is her name and not only is she a brilliant performer; she is able to take on a whole new persona during her singing. Her charm and charisma she displayed while setting up and hanging out was thrown out the window as she screeched like a woman possessed throughout the whole set. She and the band in general performed their hearts out and there were maybe 15 people total there including the bouncer. That in itself really resonated with me. I have seen bands perform for ten times the amount of people that were in the Launchpad that night with ten times less the energy. This was not the case with Perfect Pussy and knowing that we were seeing them at this starting point of their careers made it so much more special. It was so cool to see them still young and in love with the idea of getting famous. They played like their lives depended on it and even more, they played like they wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. Having anyone, even if it was just 15 people show up on a Monday night in Albuquerque hundreds of miles from home still was such an honor and a privilege for them and they performed for us like it.

This will be a show to talk about for the rest of my life. Perfect Pussy is just now getting noticed on the big time. Pitchfork featured them in their top songs of the year list, quotes of the year and in their honorable mentions of albums of the year so within the year I know people will be talking about this band and their new album they will be releasing early next year. They just got signed to a new record label so even with the promise of money in their future they still performed for us like they still were trying to make their first break.

As we left we made sure to talk to as many of the members as we could, including the guitar player, lead singer and keyboard player. It was an honor really to shake their hands and tell them how cool it was for them to come all the way from Syracuse, New York and what an awesome performance it was. They genuinely seemed flattered and grateful for our words of support and seeing their faces brighten from our words was beautiful. Patch got a tape signed by the lead singer and guitarist who had signed in blood, easily the most punk thing I have ever witnessed. Leaving the Launchpad that night we were almost giddy with excitement from what we had witnessed and the people we had met, not to mention all the loot Patch had ended up with. Perfect Pussy only played about 30 minutes long but we had observed one of the most important shows of the year so it didn’t really matter how short it was.